Howad will be a Saint.

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; first, his cap number this year is $7,803,600 to be precise. So getting him down to $4-5mil (contract+bonus) would free up 3-4mil. that is borderline enough to sign the rookies. So we just blow off the promise to McKenzie? Wait ...

first, his cap number this year is $7,803,600 to be precise. So getting him down to $4-5mil (contract+bonus) would free up 3-4mil. that is borderline enough to sign the rookies. So we just blow off the promise to McKenzie? Wait until Bentley can test free agency? Lose the ability to franchise other players?

the only reason why the rumored new contract sounded realistic is that howard gets $8mil in his pocket for two years (con+bonus). no one can think he would take significantly less than the almost $8mil franchised do they? Some players might do that to be on the Pats. But for the Saints? LOL

It must have been overlooked that he Falcons did have to cut high paid players Travis Hall, Ed Jasper, and Cory Hall to make cap room.

I think players have finially started to realize when you get the team in a jam when it comes to having to pay you money... take advantage of it. I am starting to see this more and more over the past two years. Hmmm, do you take 7-8 million or do you sign a contract that will give you 3-4 million hmmm... lol.

and i don\'t begrudge the players one bit over it. few ever really make it and the average career span is now under 4 years i think. it isn\'t like they are on an assembly line making a product for the owner... THEY ARE the procuct. people turn out for POS movies for one reason, the name on the marquee. if someone wants to give me twice what i have been earning to come to work for them, more power to\'em. no forces the teams to franchise these players. they know exactly what the consequences are. THAT is the necessity of staying ahead of the game as those key players roll around- get betley tied up before the bind, charles grant the year after that is coming.

None of those contracts expire this year, but aren\'t you concerned about the morale of our top players? Holdouts? Our FO being the cancer?

Bentley\'s does expire next year. This is a huge problem, since if Howard stays on at 7.8 mil (which I still maintain will require SERIOUS work to even sign our rookies at that rate), then Howrd and Bentley will be FA\'s together. We can only franchise one.

Worse, if we do resign Howard to a long term deal, we will have no franchise tag until the end of his contract. Which means eventually Bentley, McKenzie, Duece, etc. will hit FA unless they do sign long term deals. What is EVEN WORSE than that is that the \"magic\" contract Howard is going to sign to reduce his cap number EXPLODES his base salary after this year - making it even harder to sign those guys once they hit FA.

You know I am on your side Kool, but the only way we lose our franchise tag is if Howard signs this magical deal before July 15. After that we can sign away. Of course, our rookies miss camps and such before that due to not having contracts, but hey, why do they need the practice? Missing time helped devery didn\'t it? But this argument is circular, with the same things being said every time it is repeated. And the same questions being asked every time. Isn\'t it at a point where we just need to see what will happen with this situation, cause it is readily apparent some will never accept the need for Howard to be traded, which is cool, while others will look to the cap and the crucial mistakes made by teams such as San Fran and Tenn to justify the trade, which is also cool. LEt\'s just hope whatever happens, it\'s in the best interest of the team, and the best product is on the field next year. I think another 7-9 or 8-8 would kill just about all of us.

Thanks for the clarification on the tag. I\'m slightly less upset about this situation now.

Good analysis of the discussion though. It seems like no ground has been gained by either side. Although the WhoDat-Billy-ssmitty camp keep saying the Whodi-LK-Kool camp hasn\'t provided reason to believe there is a problem. Thus, this question: what would constitute reason for you guys to believe there is a problem?